dure for evermore. Jacob's ladder was a SERM. type or emblem of Christ, who is the true VIII. means of union between earth and heaven; and as the Patriarch beheld the Holy Angels both coming down from heaven and returning back, fo did our bleffed Lord promife his difciples that they fhould fee heaven opened, and the Angels of heaven afcending and defcending upon the Son of man: afcending (it may be) with him from mount Olivet, and defcending hereafter when he fhall return to judgment in the glory of his Father, attended with his heavenly hoft: or elfe (which is more applicable to the matter before us) continually fent forth,

virtue of his merit and interceffion, as fuller manifeftations of the Divine prefence, both going and returning, to answer the continual ufes and exigencies of his church.

Such then (as we have feen) being the peculiar manner of God's prefence in the places dedicated to his fervice: and fuch their use and fignificance to us, as opening. an entrance into endless felicity; what remains to be inferred, but, in the

III. THIRD and laft place, that, upon both accounts, fuch Places ought to be confidered and approached with awe and reverence? According to the religious reflection of the Patriarch in the Text:- How dreadful

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SERM. dreadful is this place! this is none other but VIII. the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

He was afraid, as the words before the Text express it; not ftruck with stupid aftonishment, or fervile terror, but filled with a religious awe and veneration of that Divine Majefty, which was pleafed in fo extraordinary a manner to manifeft itself to him. It was not any ritual precept of the law, which gave occafion to this awe and reverence; for, this was long before the time of Mofes, or the promulgation of thofe ritual precepts delivered at mount Sinai. It had therefore its foundation in the reafon of the thing, unless we would charge the good Patriarch with mistake and the respect which he paid to the place where God was pleased to manifeft his Presence, will be due from us to the places appropriate to our affembling for religious worship, where the fame prefence is graciously vouchfafed. The Lord (fays he) fhall be my God, and this ftone, which I have fet for a pillar, fhall be God's house; and of all that thou shalt give me, I will furely give the tenth unto thee. Here is an engagement to separate this Place for a religious use, to fit it up as the house of God, to endow it with a competent revenue, and to frequent it as a place of worship, with a becoming reverence of gefture and spirit of devotion.

1. First

1. First then, it is implied that the houfe SER M. of God fhould be appropriate, or separated VIII. from a common to a religious ufe. To this purpose it has been ufual to separate fuch Places by a folemn dedication; and whether they were first chofen by God, or, for prudential reafons, pitched upon by men, it has been judged a practice of no little fignificance, by humble prayer to invocate God's fpecial favour and regard to the devotions offered in them, and to obferve the day of their appointment as an annual Feftival. The prayer of King Solomon, at the confecration of his Temple, was not prescribed by legal institution, but for the matter of it founded in the nature of the thing, and for the form, fuggested by immediate infpiration. And the Feast of Dedication, observed among the Jews, was fo far from being discountenanced by our bleffed Saviour, that we read in the Gospel of St. John how he honoured the folemnity with his Divine presence *. To fhew again his zeal for appropriating it wholly to religious offices, he could not bear the profanation even of the Gentiles Court, by felling doves or sheep for facrifice, or changing money for the uses of the Temple, but turned out the offenders with much warmth and vehemence, and urged the Prophet's authority against them, It is written, my house * John x. 22.

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Shall

SERM.fhall be called the houfe of prayer to all naVIII. tions, but ye have made it a den of thieves.

The reafon holds as well for our Chrif tian churches as it did for the Jewish: And accordingly the Apoftle, when he blames the profanation and abufe of the Corinthians, takes his argument from the diftinction which they ought to have made between fuch religious places and their private houfes. What? have ye not houfes to eat and to drink in? or defpife ye the church. of God? From whence it is reasonably argued, that our Churches, as well as the Temple of the Jews, ought to be appropriate to religious ufes, and not made common or profaned by the management of temporal and worldly bufinefs. Again,

2. Secondly, As the Place is appropriate to fo high an ufe, fo it ought to be adorned with fuch outward beauty and comelinefs, as may fitly exprefs our inward reverence for him to whom it is appropriated. It was the Prophet Ifaiah's defcription of the beauty of the Chriftian Church, that the glory of Lebanon fhould come, the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of the fanctuary of God, and to make the place of his feet glorious. And, however this may be fitly understood to have a fpiritual meaning, and design the inward ornaments of grace and virtue, yet may it + Ifai. lx. 13.

I Cor. xi. 22.

fairly be inferred, from the choice of fuch SER M. expreffions, that the skill of Architects, and VIII. other curious artifts, is highly convenientto be added for external ornament. For how should their workmanship be reprefented as the figure of inward grace and comeliness, if it were not itself comely and decent, and proper to adorn the places of religious worship?

It is confeffed indeed, that these things must bear proporttion to outward circumftances and convenience. When Chriftians are perfecuted and oppreffed, or (otherwife) difabled by the poverty of their condition, the God whom they ferve, is not so auftere a Master as to require these marks of refpect which are impoffible, but will prefer the devotion that proceeds out of a pure heart, altho' it were in caves or cottages, to all the fumptuous pageantry of hypocrites or fuperficial formalifts. But, when the condition of the church will admit of more coftly preparations, it must then argue a defect of inward reverence, if men fuffer their churches ftill to wear the badge of poverty, whilft their own private houses. are perhaps adorned with great expence and sumptuousness. This was the reflection made by good King David, who judg'd it a matter of indecency for the ark of God to dwell only within curtains, whilst